David Preece said it was his dream to be a professor and teaching at BYUH fulfilled it. As a retiree, he hopes students remember him as one who did his best to help them become better people.
David Preece, a retired emeritus associate professor at BYU-Hawaii, said he hopes students will remember him for his efforts “[trying] hard every day to help them be a better person, both academically, spiritually and as a good human being.”
Describing what kind of teacher Preece was, Ammon Tamilarason, a Spring 2022 alumnus from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said he has an aura around him that makes him lovable, friendly and difficult to dislike.
Sesimani Dulaki, a Winter 2022 alumna from Suva, Fiji, echoed Tamilarason when she said, "He's got this warm vibe around him that makes it very welcoming for students." She said she is comfortable coming to him with questions by messaging him directly and asking any questions regarding the hotel and tourism management industry.
As one of the former students of Preece, Tamilarason added he is a very warm person in a way his voice intonation makes people feel welcome to approach him.
Tamilarason said he genuinely cares about his students when they have questions. "When he is focused on you, he is focused on you [in a way that] he is not distracted." He explained whenever Preece had time, he would accommodate his students.
Based on his experience, Preece would give him "his honest full insights." He explained Preece would tell him whether his plans would work or not and he would also add his experiences.
Tamilarason said he is also a very optimistic person and explained how he taught encouragingly. One example he gave was that he used motivational words and talked about what his student's potential achievements could be.
He added Preece is not only a teacher at school but would also meet with students outside school. He explained because of Preece's inviting demeanor, he would ask students to come over to his place to talk and have good food.
"When you know him as a teacher, you'll love him, but when you know him as a person and you're not talking about school, you'll love him even more because he's just being himself," he said. During those visits, he added, Preece would also give them life advice and talk about world events.
Tamilarason said, "I wish he had 10 more years at BYU[H]. I'm sure the students would really love a great teacher like him."
Work history and opportunity at BYUH
Preece said he has lived in Laie since 1995 and raised his family here with his wife, Laurie Preece. Prior to their big move to Laie, they were living in the state of Georgia. By the time Preece and his wife had three children, he was working at the Polynesian Cultural Center as vice president of marketing and sales. He oversaw the company's "marketing, sales, reservations, and retail stores."
Preece, born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, said after a few years working at the PCC, he left his job to work for Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau as vice president of marketing while still residing with his family in Laie. From there, he said, he returned to the mainland for other work opportunities.
Around 2009, he said he heard that a HTM faculty member had passed away at BYU–Hawaii and asked his friends at the university if there were plans to replace the late faculty member.
Preece revealed it was always his dream "to go into university teaching environment." He said he always wanted to be a professor but never got the right opportunity and timing. In the Fall 2010 Semester, he was hired for the teaching position at BYUH, where he taught HTM and marketing. Over the past five years he’s been teaching HTM for the most part, he added.
For Preece, helping to direct the expansion and development of the HTM program at BYUH has been his most memorable experience here. "The] effort really started back in 2015. That's when we established the Center for Hospitality and Tourism to provide a full range of support services for our students," he said.
He said the expansion of the program included improving its internship program, scholarship funds, bringing senior missionaries with professional experience who can guide the students, local and off-island field trips, lecture series with professionals and many more.
Preece said, "Back in 2015, we had about 130 HTM students. Now we have about 325." He said there are several reasons for the growth. First, he said it is due to the improved curriculum; second, he attributed the growth to the creation of the Center for Hospitality and Tourism and the "extracurricular student support programs;" and third, he said it has grown because excited students became "program evangelists."
Teaching and getting to know the students
Preece said he never had professional teaching experience before coming to BYUH as a professor. "I was very comfortable in front of groups, making presentations, having discussions … However, I had never been given the responsibility to create a curriculum for a course," he commented.
He admitted he was initially nervous and anxious because everything was new to him. "I had a few fellow professors who were good mentors for me, but I put a lot of time in that first year or two, trying to figure out how to be a good professor," Preece said.
Talking about how he taught his classes, Preece said he always told people since 2010 he never "taught the same course twice." He explained he changed the curriculum each time he taught each course, added new video presentations and updated the quizzes.
"I try to figure out how to make it contemporary [and] how to make it relevant to the students today. … I'm always changing [the courses] every semester," he said.
When asked what he would miss the most at BYUH, Preece said, "I will miss being in the classroom every day with our wonderful students where they bring such a huge diversity of backgrounds, language, ethnic backgrounds, cultural interests and career path interests."
Talking about the most memorable and meaningful part of teaching at the University, Preece said it was interacting with the students. He said, "I actually consider a lot of my former students [my] good friends.”
He said because of the small campus environment and small class sizes, it allows teachers to get to know students more profoundly.
One of his student friends is Sesimani Dulaki, he said, “The thing that you'll find out about Sesi is she's very outgoing. She has a very strong personality. And so, she was always very good at participating and expressing her opinions in class discussions.”
Dulaki, who attended three of Preece's classes, said Preece made his classes enjoyable in a way that he not only taught the theory but also shared his plentiful work experiences from the industry in his classes.
One of the things she learned from Preece is the possibility of traveling and seeing the world. "When I first started in HTM, I took it because I liked socializing [and] talking to people, and I thought that was it. I didn't really consider being able to travel and explore the world until I was able to get it from his perspective," she commented.
A great mentor
Preece said he gave an exposure opportunity to Dulaki along with several other students. "There is a large group of donors who give money to the university who come every year. It's called the Genuine Gold Society," he shared. The administration requested that the HTM program could bring some students to one of their gatherings, which they did, he said.
Dulaki said towards the end of her senior year; she received a lot of opportunities, one of which came from David Preece. Dulaki was one of the four students who represented the HTM program to the donors who visited the university.
She said, though it was nerve-racking, it was a special time when she met some people who supported her education. It was an honor to be trusted with that opportunity from Preece, she added.
"I was very nervous, but I was very happy that I got the chance to sit down with [Preece], and he gave me pointers on what to present [and] how to present it," she shared. She added from the experience she learned to be confident in what knowledge she already has and not worry so much about what she does not know.
Preece said, "When people come to campus, and they want to find different ways to support the University, the best thing to do is to let them interact with our students because they [will] learn to love our students, just like we do."